Cognition
@cognitionjournal.bsky.social
EiC team: Johan Wagemans, Ian Dobbins, Ori Friedman, and Katrien Segaert
We show that the reduction of joint communicative effort when repeatedly referring to the same object, follows a negative power law. Importantly, the faster this reduction, the more conceptualizations change and the closer they come together.
November 27, 2025 at 6:49 PM
We show that the reduction of joint communicative effort when repeatedly referring to the same object, follows a negative power law. Importantly, the faster this reduction, the more conceptualizations change and the closer they come together.
7/10
Some studies find that voiceless stops (e.g., /t/) sound small and voiced stops (e.g., /b/) sound large. Turns out that words for relatively small referents also have more voiceless - voiced stops than words for relatively large referents
Some studies find that voiceless stops (e.g., /t/) sound small and voiced stops (e.g., /b/) sound large. Turns out that words for relatively small referents also have more voiceless - voiced stops than words for relatively large referents
November 25, 2025 at 4:45 PM
7/10
Some studies find that voiceless stops (e.g., /t/) sound small and voiced stops (e.g., /b/) sound large. Turns out that words for relatively small referents also have more voiceless - voiced stops than words for relatively large referents
Some studies find that voiceless stops (e.g., /t/) sound small and voiced stops (e.g., /b/) sound large. Turns out that words for relatively small referents also have more voiceless - voiced stops than words for relatively large referents
6/10
For each word the Front Bias (#front vowels - #back vowels) was calculated. Results show that words denoting relatively small referents have a higher front bias than words denoting relatively large referents
For each word the Front Bias (#front vowels - #back vowels) was calculated. Results show that words denoting relatively small referents have a higher front bias than words denoting relatively large referents
November 25, 2025 at 4:45 PM
6/10
For each word the Front Bias (#front vowels - #back vowels) was calculated. Results show that words denoting relatively small referents have a higher front bias than words denoting relatively large referents
For each word the Front Bias (#front vowels - #back vowels) was calculated. Results show that words denoting relatively small referents have a higher front bias than words denoting relatively large referents
They then find that if there is any association with cognitive variables at all, it is about 20x more likely that cognitive reflection is associated with less (!) politically motivated reasoning. Results for inhibitory control are inconclusive.
November 21, 2025 at 2:47 PM
They then find that if there is any association with cognitive variables at all, it is about 20x more likely that cognitive reflection is associated with less (!) politically motivated reasoning. Results for inhibitory control are inconclusive.
So, what is it? Gamifying a recent “Fake News Detectives” task 🕵️ the authors differentiated between prior beliefs and motivations by design and found motivated reasoning across a wide range of political topics, from immigration to climate change.
November 21, 2025 at 2:47 PM
So, what is it? Gamifying a recent “Fake News Detectives” task 🕵️ the authors differentiated between prior beliefs and motivations by design and found motivated reasoning across a wide range of political topics, from immigration to climate change.
How early do children grasp mathematical patterns? In a new Cognition paper, Ciccione et al. show that 5–6-year-olds can intuitively extend lines, curves and oscillating patterns, revealing rich proto-mathematical intuitions before schooling.
November 20, 2025 at 1:55 PM
How early do children grasp mathematical patterns? In a new Cognition paper, Ciccione et al. show that 5–6-year-olds can intuitively extend lines, curves and oscillating patterns, revealing rich proto-mathematical intuitions before schooling.
This adds a new twist to linguistic relativity: Grammar nudges our sense of how valuable future events really are, because of how certain we are about them. We call this the modal hypothesis (Fig 3)
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
This adds a new twist to linguistic relativity: Grammar nudges our sense of how valuable future events really are, because of how certain we are about them. We call this the modal hypothesis (Fig 3)
It’s not future tenses like will that drive this effect. Instead, the obligation in English to use a modal like may lowers its perceived probability (i.e. Sub-Figure C was supported but not A or B in Fig 2). This makes the future feel less certain and therefore less valuable.
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
It’s not future tenses like will that drive this effect. Instead, the obligation in English to use a modal like may lowers its perceived probability (i.e. Sub-Figure C was supported but not A or B in Fig 2). This makes the future feel less certain and therefore less valuable.
How did we study this? We combined experiments, bilingual comparisons, and large-scale text analyses. Together these show that English future grammar shifts both how people talk about and evaluate the future, note higher use of low-certainty modals in English (Fig 1).
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
How did we study this? We combined experiments, bilingual comparisons, and large-scale text analyses. Together these show that English future grammar shifts both how people talk about and evaluate the future, note higher use of low-certainty modals in English (Fig 1).
Findings: Immersive movement produced richer, event-specific free recall; joystick control yielded more generalized/semantic-like descriptions—knowledge accrued over repeated routes.
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Findings: Immersive movement produced richer, event-specific free recall; joystick control yielded more generalized/semantic-like descriptions—knowledge accrued over repeated routes.
New in Cognition: Episodic Recall after VR navigation with naturalistic leg/head movement (immersive) vs handheld joystick (restricted). Sabharwal-Siddiqi et al. (sameerss.bsky.social adekstreme.bsky.social) tests the dependence of episodic memory on body movement and spatiotemporal encoding.
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
New in Cognition: Episodic Recall after VR navigation with naturalistic leg/head movement (immersive) vs handheld joystick (restricted). Sabharwal-Siddiqi et al. (sameerss.bsky.social adekstreme.bsky.social) tests the dependence of episodic memory on body movement and spatiotemporal encoding.
A trial-wise analysis reveals a very strong correlation between confidence and guessing rate for transparent motion, but extremely weak correlation between confidence and precision (SD) for both motion types.
October 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
A trial-wise analysis reveals a very strong correlation between confidence and guessing rate for transparent motion, but extremely weak correlation between confidence and precision (SD) for both motion types.
In a new paper in Cognition, @marshallgreen.bsky.social and Michael Pratte examine how perceptual confidence is derived from our internal representations. #CognitiveScience #Perception #Metacognition
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
In a new paper in Cognition, @marshallgreen.bsky.social and Michael Pratte examine how perceptual confidence is derived from our internal representations. #CognitiveScience #Perception #Metacognition
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Even when emotions aren’t relevant to a task, they still guide our focus. Using a Posner cueing task for exogenous attention orientation —a paradigm designed to isolate reflexive attention— we discovered the TEASC effect:
October 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Even when emotions aren’t relevant to a task, they still guide our focus. Using a Posner cueing task for exogenous attention orientation —a paradigm designed to isolate reflexive attention— we discovered the TEASC effect:
We think about others’ thoughts about our thoughts to navigate romance, sarcasm, gossip, and nuclear standoffs. But recursive mentalizing is hard. In a model contest, I show that under pressure our inner vision goes blurry, not blind. #TheoryOfMind
October 11, 2025 at 4:23 PM
We think about others’ thoughts about our thoughts to navigate romance, sarcasm, gossip, and nuclear standoffs. But recursive mentalizing is hard. In a model contest, I show that under pressure our inner vision goes blurry, not blind. #TheoryOfMind
In our study, we investigated how people evaluate everyday socio-political arguments in the context of their prior beliefs about the topics being discussed.
October 1, 2025 at 3:14 PM
In our study, we investigated how people evaluate everyday socio-political arguments in the context of their prior beliefs about the topics being discussed.
We often argue about what’s true, without ever asking what we mean by ”truth”. Different ideas of truth can derail a debate long before facts are discussed. In this work, we use conceptual scaling to explore how people understand truth.
(1/7)
(1/7)
September 23, 2025 at 2:20 PM
We often argue about what’s true, without ever asking what we mean by ”truth”. Different ideas of truth can derail a debate long before facts are discussed. In this work, we use conceptual scaling to explore how people understand truth.
(1/7)
(1/7)
Consistent with the theory, our experiments show that self-handicapping increases naive observers’ evaluations, but not for sophisticated observers when the actor fails. The theory also explains past experiments with different setups and methods.
September 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Consistent with the theory, our experiments show that self-handicapping increases naive observers’ evaluations, but not for sophisticated observers when the actor fails. The theory also explains past experiments with different setups and methods.
The theory involves a naive observer who evaluates the actor’s competence, an actor who seeks to impress the naive observer through strategic self-handicapping, and a sophisticated observer who considers the actor’s decision whether to self-handicap.
September 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
The theory involves a naive observer who evaluates the actor’s competence, an actor who seeks to impress the naive observer through strategic self-handicapping, and a sophisticated observer who considers the actor’s decision whether to self-handicap.
How do background voices derail our thoughts? Our study shows that distracting words disrupt deliberate memory retrieval not necessarily by grabbing attention, but because they are processed incidentally, forcing us to suppress their meaning.
September 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
How do background voices derail our thoughts? Our study shows that distracting words disrupt deliberate memory retrieval not necessarily by grabbing attention, but because they are processed incidentally, forcing us to suppress their meaning.
Highlighting “women and children” as victims increases moral outrage, and this is not due to equating them with “civilians” or overestimating the number of their causalities.
September 15, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Highlighting “women and children” as victims increases moral outrage, and this is not due to equating them with “civilians” or overestimating the number of their causalities.
20/ The results showed that people really were better at detecting lures related to coherent videos. When it came to reject fragmented lures, they actually performed at chance level! (Exp. 3 also replicated our order-related findings from Exp. 1 and 2).
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
20/ The results showed that people really were better at detecting lures related to coherent videos. When it came to reject fragmented lures, they actually performed at chance level! (Exp. 3 also replicated our order-related findings from Exp. 1 and 2).
19/ Basically, only half of the images participants saw were actual stills from the video (originals); the rest (lures) had been doctored in a manner that misrepresented causally relevant details. Here, the red burger and the barrel switched position.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
19/ Basically, only half of the images participants saw were actual stills from the video (originals); the rest (lures) had been doctored in a manner that misrepresented causally relevant details. Here, the red burger and the barrel switched position.
15/ In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis regarding recall of event order. It was a within-subjects study, meaning each participant saw both coherent and fragmented videos. As predicted, people were better at remembering the order of coherent events.
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
15/ In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis regarding recall of event order. It was a within-subjects study, meaning each participant saw both coherent and fragmented videos. As predicted, people were better at remembering the order of coherent events.
10/ We should probably note that all the previous GIFs were just snippets – here’s a complete fragmented video from Experiment 1 (these videos were the shortest), in case you are curious:
September 15, 2025 at 3:36 PM
10/ We should probably note that all the previous GIFs were just snippets – here’s a complete fragmented video from Experiment 1 (these videos were the shortest), in case you are curious: